It's old meets new for the Courtenay Fire Department, resulting in an economic and environmental savings for residents and the City.
"It's a little bit different. Half of the vehicle is brand new; half of it is recycled," explained Courtenay Fire Chief Don Bardonnex of their week-old rescue truck.
"If you look at the cab portion it's a 2013 chassis … and the box on the back of it is off of our 1992 Spartan Heavy Rescue."
Bardonnex said the department recycled the cab, the large command lights, generator and more off their old rescue vehicle, and retrofitted it with a new cab with state-of-the-art equipment and high environmental standards.
"It has side curtain airbags, knee airbags, full frontal airbags, integrated rollover protection. There's safety lighting and electronic stability control," he said.
"It meets the highest EPA standards for 2013 California emission standards. It's an industry first — standard stuff for automotive but it has never been in fire trucks before."
Although Bardonnex explained a fire truck engine has a 20-year lifecycle, rescue trucks don't have the same limited timeframe, and he would consider doing the rebuild again.
The vehicle was driven to Manitoba where Fort Garry Fire Trucks rebuilt the vehicle, and Bardonnex drove it back to the Valley.
"By (doing the retrofit), it saved the City approximately $180,000," he noted, and added a brand new rescue truck would cost around $560,000.
This is the first time the City of Courtenay has retrofitted a rescue truck.
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